North Korea could be preparing for another ballistic missile launch within the next few days.

Kyodo news said that the Japanese government is on high alert after receiving radio signals which suggest the rogue nation may be about to carry out another missile test. The Japanese yen strengthened on the report. However, the details were sketchy:

But as satellite images have not shown a missile or a movable launch pad, the signals may only be related to winter training for the North Korean military, the sources said.

The reclusive state has been relatively quiet recently, not conducting a nuclear or missile test since Sept. 15 when it launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile over northern Japan into the Pacific Ocean.

Analysts say, however, the North may resort to more military provocations after U.S. President Donald Trump put Pyongyang back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism on Nov. 20.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission will suspend the approval of new mainland Chinese mutual funds that plan to invest more than 80% of their portfolio in Hong Kong’s stock market, the South China Morning Post reported. Only funds that allocate less than half of their portfolio to Hong Kong will be approved, two state-owned funds familiar with the matter told the Hong Kong newspaper :

The Chinese regulator’s latest instruction reflects the concern that Hong Kong’s key stock benchmark has risen too much too quickly to a level that was last attained in 2007, before the global financial crisis a year later caused the Hang Seng Index to plunge 33 per cent, and wiped out billions of dollars of value.

Bitcoin has surged above USD9,500 on Monday in what Shane Chanel, equities and derivatives adviser at ASR Wealth Advisers, puts down to late bloomers entering the market driving the cryptocurrency through the roof. As some experts tip the digital currency to reach a mind-boggling $40,000, billionaire investor Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel hedge fund, likened the bitcoin bubble to Holland’s Tulipmania, when speculators drove the price of tulips to astronomical levels during the early 1600s, in an interview with CNBC :

“Bitcoin right now has many of the elements of the tulip bulb mania we saw back hundreds of years ago in Holland,” said the billionaire hedge fund manager in an exclusive interview with CNBC’s Leslie Picker.

Griffin, however, said he does believe the blockchain technology backing the cryptocurrency is valid.

“Blockchain’s a very interesting technology that will have some very profound applications for society over the years to come,” he said.

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